Thursday, 9 June 2016

First brigade done

Well, I've caved in. I have had so many people asking why I did the first two units with grey trousers that I decided to nip it in the bud, pull two battalions off of their bases and repaint thirty or so pairs of trousers white, mix in the third battalion of KGL and then re-base: Crikey but, I do feel better for it.I now have my first full brigade done. I say full but, for some purists, it will still be a battalion short (the 7th). My reason is pretty simple: For brigade strength in standard sized battalions I've decided to divide brigade strength by 600 and round up or down to give the number of six stand battalions. This method makes Lowe's KGL a three battalion brigade rather than a four. Occasionally a bigger unit (8 stands) will be required, but not often.So here it is. My first Peninsular command group. Lowes Brigade of 1st Division.

Three battalions (1st, 2nd, 5th) of the KGL. Each is 24 strong, four figures on six 40 x 40 stands, with four extra skirmishers on two pence pieces. I've typically done a one figure stand representing the brigadier (in this case Lowe) on a circular stand.Divisional commanders will be, in the future, represented by two mounted figures on a stand.

I've chosen to give each unit an ID tag at the back of one of the central stands. I like this because it might make players actually use the name of the battalion rather than saying "that unit".I'm not sure about the white background. I might change it to something less stark, possibly beige.

Having decided to repaint some trousers and re-base I also decided to consult my sources again as regards figure placement. This is actually pretty accurate, especially as regards the central command stands with (left to right) ensign, sergeant, ensign, officer, but I'm less sure about how the drummer's position will be received - back rank and to the side looks odd but is accurate (though his position should be mirrored by another on the other side). Anyway, this will be the format from now on.

Another thing I've decided to do, mostly to keep skirmishers with their parent units in storage, is to make 'brigade trays'. If nothing else, it will make taking figures out of the cabinets easier.Trays are 4 mm plywood bottoms with 2mm MDF sides - all cut out to size with a Stanley knife and put together with Gorilla wood glue.Next up, a battery of British foot artillery which I hope to get done this weekend.Thanks for looking.

You could mix in some brown trousers to reflect the soldier having one of the Locals make him a replacement pair of britches to replace his worn out standard issue gear. Also, some knee and elbow patches here and there, perhaps a hole in the knee or elbow of a uniform ( paint a black spot on the knee and then some flesh on top of the black) .

Maybe you might consider basing the skirmishers in pairs, primarily to make it easier to move figures around the table without having so many extra bases to contend with; but you could also justify pairs because that is how they plied their trade during battle. And finally, each brigade will need a company of green coated rifles to augment the light companies.

What a wonderful beginning to your army! As Jim pointed out, there really should be a company of riflemen about but for now they are on detached duty. Will you be doing Highlanders any time soon? Will their battalions be larger? Guards?Great painting. And your build of a brigade box for storage is genius!Jerry

There will be two tiny (5 - 6 figs each) units of riflemen for 1st Division (best way of scaling, possibly). After the artillery I'll be doing Howard's Brigade which has some Scots and a Light infantry battalion. I've already got the Guards Battalions (x2 large) in stock but I'll be doing some French, for a cheeky first game, before I tackle them.

I've recently picked up a commission to paint for Alec (Front Rank) so I can see this collection increasing in scope from the initial 1500 figures collection to something rather grander. To be continued..............

Regarding the unit label - I print mine in a brown color close to the base edge color, and print the unit name or officer name in white. Looks good and doesn't stand out too much since the largest block of color blends with the base edge.

Great work and far too fast :) Given that for Black Powder at least unit frontage is used rather than figure ratios why not include the forth battalion (the 7th)? Also which battle OOB are you basing your divisions on?

I'm using, as a base, Fuentes De Onoro though probably not exactly overall. I like the Portuguese being specifically allocated to Divisions.

As a rule of thumb I am doing frontages rather than units of different sizes. My divider is 600, and the KGL Brigade is roughly 1800 strong for three units rather than four. Also, 7th disappears after Fuentes, presumably being folded into other battalions as replacements.